The present invention relates generally to preventing leakage in absorbent garments and more specifically to a standing leg gather having a high leak containment ability. The present invention also relates to an absorbent garment having high leak containment properties.
Disposable absorbent garments, such as disposable diapers and training pants, are commonly used in the hygienic care of infants and incontinent adults. These garments typically include an absorbent core integrated between a liquid-impervious backsheet and a liquid-pervious topsheet. Disposable absorbent garments can also have other features incorporated into their design, such as fastening tabs, an elastic waist band, soft side seams, and the like.
Although the absorbent core typically is capable of absorbing and storing a relatively large quantity of body exudates, the rate at which body exudates are expelled, as well as the quantity of body exudates expelled, often can overwhelm the absorbent action of the absorbent core, resulting in unabsorbed body waste and fluids between the body of the wearer and the surface of the topsheet. Accordingly, many absorbent garments include standing leg gathers and other types of leg gathers to form leg-encircling barriers to the leakage of unabsorbed body exudates from the absorbent garment. The containment capabilities of these standing leg gathers typically are enhanced by including elastic elements along the length of the standing leg gather to provide a contractile force that further constricts the standing leg gather against the leg of the wearer, thereby reducing the ability of unabsorbed exudates to escape from between the leg of the wearer and the edge of the standing leg gather in contact with the leg of the wearer. In effect, the standing leg gather is intended to form a xe2x80x9cgasketxe2x80x9d between the body of the wearer and the absorbent garment, thereby inhibiting the leakage of body exudates.
While the use of standing leg gathers in absorbent garments for enhanced leak containment is known, it is desired to more particularly define the leak containment ability of standing leg gathers to determine those standing leg gathers that are better suited for use in containing body exudates in absorbent garments. The present invention seeks to determine the leak containment ability of standing leg gathers by providing an objective standing leg gather test method and to provide a standing leg gather having improved performance, as determined by the test method.
It would be desirable to provide standing leg gathers having superior leak containment properties. It also would be desirable to quantify the ability of a standing leg gather to seal against a leg of a wearer to prevent or minimize leakage of body fluids.
In accordance with at least one embodiment of the present invention, a disposable absorbent garment is provided. The absorbent garment comprises a back sheet, a top sheet, and an absorbent core disposed between the back sheet and the top sheet. The absorbent garment further comprises at least one longitudinally extending, elasticized standing leg gather disposed laterally from a longitudinal centerline of the garment, the at least one elasticized standing leg gather including at least one elastic element for distributing elastic contractile forces generated by the at least one elastic element along a substantial portion of a horizontal extent of each standing leg gather. In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, the at least one standing leg gather has a mean Total Leg Gasketing Index over three elongation cycles of at least about 4.75 kg*mm.
In accordance with other embodiments of the present invention, the standing leg gather has Summation Leg Gasketing Index over three cycles at 195% elongation of at least about 25 kg*mm. In accordance with another embodiment, the standing leg gather has a first cycle mean partial Leg Gasketing Index of at least about 23 kg*mm.
In accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of determining the Leg Gasketing index of an elasticized standing leg gather disposed laterally from a longitudinal centerline of an absorbent garment, the standing leg gather including at least one elastic element for distributing elastic contractile forces generated by the at least one elastic element along a substantial portion of a horizontal extent of the standing leg gather. The method includes obtaining a section of the standing leg gather, the section having a height and an unloaded length, determining the height of the section of the standing leg gather, elongating the section of the standing leg gather from the unloaded length to a first elongation, determining a first elastic contractile force exhibited by the section of the standing leg gather at the first elongation, and calculating a first Leg Gasketing Index by multiplying the height of the section by the first elastic contractile force.
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, there is provided a method of making an absorbent garment that includes providing a top sheet material, a back sheet material, and an absorbent core, and disposing the absorbent core between the top sheet material and the back sheet material. The method also includes providing at least one longitudinally extending, elasticized standing leg gather, and disposing the standing leg gather laterally from a longitudinal centerline of the garment, whereby the at least one standing leg gather includes at least one elastic element, and it has a mean Total Leg Gasketing Index over three elongation cycles of at least about 4.75 kg*mm.